This blog is for psychologists, teachers, speech and language therapists, related professionals, parents, technologists, and others interested in using technology more effectively to support engaged learning, cognitive development, communication, social-emotional skills development, health & wellness, transition-to-adulthood planning, and assessment linked to prevention and intervention. Enter a term or phrase in the search box to find what interests you!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I just came across Robin Raskin's Raising Digital Kids website, which has many resources that would be of interest to parents as well as teachers. Technology is moving ahead very quickly, and even tech-savvy adults can get behind!Robin's website is very well organized and focuses on topics such as "Your Digital Home" and "Your Digital Kids". I especially like her byline:"No one said raising kids in a digital world would be easy; but it can be fun and rewarding, especially if you listen to your Internet Mom."Robin currently works with the Consumer Electronic Association and is producing a series of conferences and exhibits for the upcoming CES 2009, including the Kids at Play Summit, focusing on young people, and the Silvers Summit, focusing on technology for the wiser, most experienced generation.The 2009 International CES event will be held from January 8-11 in Las Vegas, NV. There will be an interesting line-up of speakers, touching on topics such as cybersafety, children and social networking, serious games & disruptive technologies, educational technology, mobile technology, technology and families, and more.Related:

Several months ago I wrote about Kevin McGrew's IQ's Corner blog."An attempt to share contemporary research findings, insights, musings, and discussions regarding theories and applied measures of human intelligence. In other words, a quantoid linear mind trying to make sense of the nonlinear world of human cognitive abilities."

Kevin also maintains the IQ Brain Clock blog:"An attempt to track the "pulse" of contemporary research and theory regarding the psychology/neuroscience of brain-based mental/interval time keeping. In addition, the relevance of neuroscience research to learning/education will also be covered..."

Kevin follows a variety of interesting blogs related to psychology, cognition, brain functioning, learning, and nore. If you visit his blogs, you'll find that he's posted an assortment of useful links, including research papers.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Funky Forest was created by Emily Gobeille and Theodore Watson for the 2007 CineKid festival in the Netherlands, using OpenFrameworks, an open-source application used for multimedia and multi-touch applications. Take a look at the video and pictures of the children interacting with this technology!

"It “is a wild and crazy ecosystem where you manage the resources to influence the environment around you. Streams of water flowing on the floor can be diverted to make the different parts of the forest grow. If a tree does not receive enough water it withers away but by pressing your body into the forest you create new trees based on your shape and character. As you explore and play you discover that your environment is inhabited by sonic life forms who depend on a thriving ecosystem to survive.”

The trees and creatures in the installation look really beautiful; just abstract enough to make it look like a strange magical forest, but the processes of our real ecosystems are still recognisable. A really wonderful project. And it sure looks like a lot of fun!" -Tanja, from the TakeBigBites blog

Wouldn't this be a great space for the children's section of the local library, or the media center in an elementary school?This is a cross post from the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.